Some rise, some fall, to get to Terrapin

November 30, 2012

1. If you suddenly received a ton of money and could open up some
kind of store or service just for the pleasure of having it (assume it
wouldn’t have to be too financially successful!), what would it be? I'd love to have a knitting/crafting store where people could come and work on their projects and get help and hang out and talk. The closest place to me for this is ... not very close. 45 minutes into the Dallas metro-mess, a foray I almost never attempt.

2. What service or store that no longer exists do you miss most? I miss when we used to have milk delivered. I barely remember it, but I do remember it. Also when the Charles Chips man would deliver barbecue chips in that big tin. Mmmmm.

3. What
local business do you think you could make better if you were to take
it over? And if you don’t mind sharing, what changes would you make? Hmm. I doubt I would make it better, but if I were to take over our local awesome used book store, Recycled Books, I would arrange it in a way that made sense to ME.

photo: Recycled Books on the Denton Courthouse Square. Three stories of awesome (includes basement). Located in the 1901 Opera House. Painted LAVENDER. Photo source: The Painted Area blog

4. What spot nearby seems to be impossible for businesses to survive in? I'm not sure it's the spot but rather the businesses there...but there's a little cottage south of downtown that has had a pet boutique, a candle store, and most recently, a vegan store called Vegan Freak. I'm sure these small start-ups find a tiny building like this one perfect for their new endeavors. However, it's out of the way (as you see) and not really close to other shopping venues.

Photo of the former Vegan Freak courtesy of Yelp.

5. We’ve
all seen stores that combined books and records, beer and laundry, or
coffee and whatever. One of my favorite places to get coffee in
Honolulu is a cafe and florist, and there is a car garage that’s also a
diner in a town nearby. What would be a cool hybrid of two disparate
ideas for somewhere you’d like to hang out? Knitting store and music store. By music store I mean something like the old Sound Warehouses (any Houstonians remember this?) They had these listening booths and you could take any LP or cassette (this was 30 years ago, folks) and you could listen as long as you wanted. If you didn't want to buy it after the listen, no worries.

Photo from Rocking Houston (a real blast from the past, if your past was there)